Next week, along with their previously announced CD of Richard Marvin's music from the supernatural mystery series GRIMM, La-La Land will be releasing an expanded edition of Elliot Goldenthal's first score for a studio film, the hit 1989 film version of Stephen King's PET SEMATARY, featuring 30 minutes of music not featured on Varese Sarabande's original release. The label will also make available a limited number of signed copies of the 2-disc set of Bear McCreary's music for DA VINCI'S DEMONS, featuring his Emmy-winning theme.

Music Box has announced a new version of John Williams' charming score for the 1967 caper comedy FITZWILLY, featuring both the original LP re-recording (previously released by the Varese Sarabande CD Club) as well as the original score tracks from archival tapes.

October 18 - Frederick Hollander born (1896)
October 18 - Allyn Ferguson born (1924)
October 18 - John Morris born (1926)
October 18 - Peter Best born (1943)
October 18 - Howard Shore born (1946)
October 18 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for East Side, West Side (1949)
October 18 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score to The Wrong Man (1956)
October 18 - Wynton Marsalis born (1961)
October 18 - Pete Carpenter died (1987)
October 19 - Fiorenzo Carpi born (1918)
October 19 - George Fenton born (1950)
October 19 - Victor Young begins recording his score to Scaramouche (1951)
October 20 - Frank Churchill born (1901)
October 20 - Thomas Newman born (1955)
October 20 - Lucien Moraweck died (1973)
October 20 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Booby Trap" (1989)
October 21 - Malcolm Arnold born (1921)
October 21 - John W. Morgan born (1946)
October 21 - Brian Banks born (1955)
October 22 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to Bhowani Junction (1955)
October 22 - Hugo Friedhofer begins recording his score to Never So Few (1959)
October 22 - Bernard Herrmann records his score for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode "Body in the Barn" (1963)
October 23 - Manos Hadjidakis born (1925)
October 23 - Graeme Revell born (1955)

"Barry Ackroyd’s hand-held cinematography certainly lives up to the vertiginousness Greengrass’ films are known for in spots, but it’s a more controlled virtuoso dizziness akin to his work on the 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Green Zone' than the sometimes geography free-for-all of the ‘Bourne’ films (shot by different DPs). Henry Jackman ('X-Men: First Class,' 'Kick-Ass') replaces Greengrass’ go-to composer John Powell, and while the musician hasn’t really charted in the past, his tribal-like pulse-pounding work here is A-game material that ratchets up the already excruciatingly intense narrative."

Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

"There is much to be admired about the technique that has gone into 'Captain Phillips.' As he has done in 'The Bourne Supremacy' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' the second and third films in that franchise, Greengrass puts the audience directly into the middle of the action, utilizing a remarkable combination of quick shots, handheld cameras, tremendous editing and a pounding score. Another apt comparison is the movie 'United 93,' Greengrass’ heartbreaking project, which also brought that same dynamic feeling to another piece of recent history."

Anders Wright, San Diego Union-Tribune

"Paul Greengrass could make the most mundane human activity -- slouching in a work cubicle, napping in a hammock -- feel dramatic. In the opening scene of the English' director's latest frenetic film, 'Captain Phillips,' we find the titular hero, Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), leaning intently over a desk in his Underhill, Vermont, home -- on March 28, 2009, to be exact. Phillips rifles through documents, clicks around his computer, locates his work badge, and checks his watch. All the while, strings skitter over a steady, ominous electronic beat, and the camera—cutting back and forth, zooming in and out -- behaves like a cokehead who can’t sit still. It is clear, contrary to what is literally occurring in this country house, that something of import is happening here. This sounds more exhausting on the page than it is in practice, and that’s precisely why 'Captain Phillips' is first-rate entertainment. The drug-addled camera and ominous music might seem excessive in Phillips’ home office, but like a noisy refrigerator or odd smell, the body learns to ignore what’s jarring at first. 'Captain Phillips,' like all of Greengrass’s films, is an immersive experience: My eyes became one with the camera, and the soundtrack became background music."

Ryan Kearney, New Republic

"Craftsmanship and technical contributions are first-rate all the way, while Henry Jackman's electronic score throbs underneath most of the action."

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

ROMEO AND JULIET - Abel Korzeniowski

"Juliet should be a girl, but the story’s trajectory of self-sacrifice requires her to become a woman. Steinfeld gets the girl part exactly right, but she botches the transformation. Or rather, the movie botches it, because there’s a stylistic disconnect here, too. The lush, galloping score (by Abel Korzeniowski), while beautiful, doesn’t do her any favors."

Bilge Ebiri, Vulture

"Both actors acquit themselves nicely, but although they deliver Shakespeare’s dialogue with ease, their performances remain studied throughout -- Booth and Steinfeld are pushed around by their characters’ melodramatic fervour rather than offering a confident take on the material. Consequently, the film’s lovebirds can’t help but seem immature and unequipped to face the consequences of what their impulsive decision to marry will mean to their warring families. In a sharper adaptation, this might be the filmmakers’ point -- driving home the notion that these star-crossed lovers were doomed from the start -- but Abel Korzeniowski’s earnest, sobbing score suggests that these characters’ superficial passion should be taken seriously."

Tim Grierson, Screen International

"Booth handles Romeo’s enraptured recitations well, as does Steinfeld. But the film is shallow and lacks vision. The battle between Tybalt and Mercutio (Christian Cooke) suggests dueling nostrils to me. The wheedling score by Abel Korzeniowski got on my nerves and made me long for the magnificent music of Nino Rota in Zeffirelli’s 1968 screen version. Now that was 'music to tame the savage breast.'”

James Verniere, Boston Herald

"Italian director Carlo Carlei has a background in TV movies, and this film, plodding and earnest, seems meant for the small screen, too. The melodramatic soundtrack, by Abel Korzeniowski, flares up every so often to demonstrate meaningful scenes, but often ends up overwhelming Steinfeld and Booth’s thin dialogue. On second thought -- maybe that wasn’t accidental after all."

Sara Stewart, New York Post

"As far as looking the part, Steinfeld holds her own, although in Shakespeare’s time, Booth would have made a stunning Juliet, with his delicate features and pillowy lips. Unfortunately, neither one has mastered the art of delivering Shakespearean (or Shakespearean-like) dialogue while also emoting. Steinfeld powers through her lines so rapidly, she doesn’t appear to hear what she’s saying. And Booth, at least better at enunciation, can’t muster a passionate facial expression, much less a fiery inflection. The sentimental, soaring music seems determined to compensate for the lead actors’ shortcomings."

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post

"Meanwhile, the score swirls endlessly round and around, trumpeting every emotion, tearing at every heartstring and generally boasting so much windmilling piano tinkling that I half expected Holly Hunter to turn up in a bonnet and throw herself speechlessly into the raging sea."

Mark Kermode, The Observer

"But it becomes abundantly clear from the very first scene of a needless bout of jousting that Italian director Carlo Carlei -- responsible for 1995's 'Fluke,' featuring Matthew Modine as a man reincarnated as a dog -- is in way over his head, from several misguided casting choices to an intrusive score that sounds like Renaissance faire elevator music."

Susan Wloszczyna, RogerEbert.com

"Shakespeare movies don’t get more unremarkable than 'Romeo & Juliet', an adaptation of the English language’s most-butchered love story produced and financed by glass-jewelry manufacturer Swarovski. Directed by Carlo Carlei -- whose last theatrical release was the 1995 'Matthew Modine is reincarnated as a dog' movie 'Fluke' -- the adaptation is a hodge-podge of bad clichés from Shakespeare movies and sappy romantic imagery. Actors in tights declaim in bloodless BBC accents while someone murders a piano’s sustain pedal on the soundtrack."

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion

"The music, which never stops, issues cyclones of Muzak-y flourishes, and Paul Giamatti, as the meddling Friar whose scheme to put Juliet in a deathlike coma turns this hormonal romp into tragedy, is, well, Giamatti-esque in ways that seem at odds with Booth and Steinfeld's straightforward ardor."

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"The swordplay sequences are shot in a rough-and-tumble handheld style that aims to lend the proceedings a shot of energy yet merely comes off as visually inconsistent. And nary a single scene is allowed to play out untainted by Abel Korzeniowski’s score, which endlessly recycles the same banal theme with only minimal variations."

"But the blame for 'Runner Runner'’s badness isn't on Timberlake. He's actually trying. The director, on the other hand? Well, Brad Furman can't whip this movie together. He dumps Tony Scott thriller music on every scene. He gives you a million cuts. He keeps the brown people in service positions."

Sounds like James Horner might have dodged a bullet by getting yanked off Romeo & Juliet and letting his replacement take the brickbats. The movie sounds so bad that I'm guessing any composer attached to it would've likely gotten trashed. (Although previewing the cuts by the composer they went with nearly put me to sleep.)